Wishful Thinking at the Post

The latest Washington Post/ABC News poll is out, and the Post is looking for some good news. Its headline reads “Americans Polarized on Bush;” if you follow the link, it says “Like Father, Bush Gets Postwar Bump in Poll.” Very subtle.
But if you look at the actual poll results, there isn’t much for the Democrats to be optimistic about. President Bush’s approval rating stands at 71%; by 52% to 45%, respondents approve his “handling of the economy”–a highly misleading question–by 75% to 22% they approve his handling of the Iraq situation, and by a 55% to 37% margin, respondents trust President Bush to do a “better job coping with the main problems the nation faces” than Congressional Democrats.
If you scour the results hard enough, you can find a ray or two of hope for the Democrats, but to suggest that Americans are “polarized on Bush” is absurd. Americans are divided on political issues generally, but the President is by far the most popular and most trusted figure on the political stage.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses